

The first sign of permanent progression is character unlocks. Your progression is pretty much lost when you die in Nuclear Throne, but there are permanent unlockables that are well-worth the effort and getting them is extremely satisfying. Once you die, weapons and mutations are lost and it's time to try again.

Players get stronger as they progress in a run via picking up weapons and choosing one mutation (like a perk or buff) per character level up.

Not only because of both games' brutality against the player, but because the gameplay itself.īoth have the player run around randomized areas trying desperately to get strong enough to stay alive as everything else around them quickly becomes overwhelming, and both are top-down view action games with their toes dipped in shmups and twin stick shooters.Īside from these similarities, Nuclear Throne is unique. One can't help but draw a parallel between it and indie darling The Binding of Isaac. You can hope you'll one day come out unscathed, but. After having bashed your beautiful, innocent face into the unforgiving and ugly wasteland, you come out black and blue and just a little bit better at surviving each time. Nuclear Throne is one of those games you repeatedly slam yourself into until you get good enough to make some actual progress. Even if it looked like just what I wanted, I was willing to wait. I've been burned on Early Access too many times just like every other Steam user who generally prefers indies over AAAs. So here's Nuclear Throne, this roguelike-like that frankly looks amazing and I want it but it's Early Access so I let it sit. I played that game for 120+ hours, both solo and with friends, and I don't regret it. I wanted a game to fill the void Risk of Rain left in my guts after I got to the point it just wasn't challenging anymore - outside of runs using excessive Artifacts. Nuclear Throne was on my radar for ages because it looked like my kind of game: fast-paced, brutal, and random.
